


Third Time Lucky

by knowyourincantations



Series: Femslash February 2019 [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adoption, Don't copy to another site, Emotional, Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February 2019, Happy Ending, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 22:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17734109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knowyourincantations/pseuds/knowyourincantations
Summary: The waiting really was torture.“Maybe I should floo the office and see what the delay is,” she said slowly. “It really would be better to know now instead of continuing to wait like this.”But she’d barely thought of actually moving when the fireplace chimed. Parvati went rigid against her and Pansy scrambled for her wand to open the gate.





	Third Time Lucky

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Femslash February 2019 Day 10, for the prompt 'Waiting'

“If you don’t stop pacing and sit down, I’ll bind your bloody legs together,” Pansy hissed.

Parvati snorted. “Sure, because your nerves _never_ effect your magic.”

A direct challenge could not be ignored, but before Pansy could grab her wand from the coffee table, Parvati sat down beside her on the sofa with a loud sigh.

“We should have heard by now,” she said weakly.

Pansy counted to ten. She felt the same, but one of them had to keep a cool head. All things considered, she couldn’t believe it was on her to be calm about this.

“Nonsense,” she said. “They said around four, not exactly four. It’s only quarter past. Something might have come up that has nothing to do with—”

“If this falls through, I don’t think I can try again,” Parvati whispered covering her face with her hands.

Pansy’s stomach dropped. “No. You can’t cry. If you cry then I’ll cry, and who the bloody hell will talk to Meryl if we’re both blubbering messes? Pull yourself together!”

With a slight shudder, Parvati sniffed and straightened her back. She wiped at her eyes but she wasn’t crying. Not yet. Pansy forced herself to breathe evenly. Crisis averted.

Parvati cleared her throat and shifted the vase of flowers on the table a little to the left. It put it off-centre, but then she just pushed it back. When she looked at Pansy again, she seemed to have recovered.

“I love you so much, you know that right?” she said softly.

The dropping sensation in Pansy’s belly turned into a twisting one instead. Four years and she still wasn’t used to these open declarations.

“I know you could have done without all this,” Parvati continued. “I wouldn’t have pushed you, so I can’t...that you’ve been working so hard to make this happen for me...I can’t...”

Heat rushed to Pansy’s face. Bloody buggering hell. She was about to start crying if Parvati went on like that again.

“Where the bloody hell is Meryl?” she hissed, shuffling a little closer to Parvati on the sofa, taking one of her hands and refusing to look at her. She’d cry. Big ugly tears. Four years hadn’t cured her of that reaction every time Parvati got emotional about how much she loved her. “Who misses an appointment by over fifteen minutes? No manners! No professionalism!”

“The waiting is murder,” Parvati moaned, sagging sideways until her head rested on Pansy’s shoulder. “I thought the last two times were bad, this is just...and the fact you’re still trying so hard to make it happen when you don’t even really want—”

“It’s not that I don’t _want_ it,” Pansy interrupted. Really, Parvati was so dramatic about everything and yet everyone called Pansy the dramatic one. “It’s just that it’s not something I spent a lot of time thinking about like you have. I’m not _against_ it. I just could have waited longer. But you, love, you’ve wanted this for years. And who the hell am I to deny you anything? After everything you’ve...oh, damn you, I _will not_ cry!”

She pressed the heel of her free hand to one of her eyes. A tear still slipped free of the other one but she hastily wiped it away.

Really, Meryl could floo in at any moment and Pansy would not cry in front of her. Not even if it all fell through again. Parvati was the only one she’d let see her cry, and usually the only bloody reason she ever cried in the first place.

Parvati sniffed loudly and Pansy considered pushing her off the couch to derail her maudlin train of thought. But then she might hit the coffee table, and that would knock over the vase and then there would be water and flowers everywhere and Meryl couldn’t see that.

The waiting really was torture.

“Maybe I should floo the office and see what the delay is,” she said slowly. “It really would be better to know now instead of continuing to wait like this.”

But she’d barely thought of actually moving when the fireplace chimed. Parvati went rigid against her and Pansy scrambled for her wand to open the gate.

With a bright flare of green, Meryl stepped through the grate.

“I’m so sorry for the delay, ladies. There was an urgent case requiring a few of us to put our heads together!” she said, dusting off her robes and starting to rifle through a satchel.

Parvati’s hand become a sharply clawed thing in Pansy’s, but the pain kept her calm and focused.

“I hope who ever it was is okay,” she said politely, even though she wanted to vault over the coffee table and tear the bag from Meryl’s hands to find the document herself. Bloody hell, that would be a memory worth preserving in a Pensieve.

“Oh, the poor little tyke will be soon, already on his way to a temporary placement,” Meryl said, still digging in her satchel before pulling a folder free with a triumphant flourish. “Right then, I won’t waste time.”

Parvati made a weak sound and Pansy had to bite her lip hard not to do the same.

Meryl looked at them, smiling warmly. “They signed everything.”

With a soft inhale, Parvati lifted a hand to her mouth.

“Everything?” Pansy asked, past caring that her voice was wobbling. “No missing sections? No arguments to the terms? The complete forfeit of parental rights?”

“Yes, dear. Now, we’ve been through this a few times, so I’ll save you the time and not repeat everything I would normally say at this point. But I will just say that since I obtained your signatures first, this document was official as of about an hour ago when they signed it and I sent a copy through to be archived.”

Parvati gasped and then sobbed, shaking her head when she failed to speak.

Meryl didn’t seem surprised, and placed the folder on the coffee table. Pansy stared at it but couldn’t bear to touch it in case it wasn’t true.

“Since I know you’re more than prepared from our meeting last week, all that remains is to pick a time.”

“Now!” Parvati gasped. “We’re ready now!”

Pansy swallowed down a sob from all that Parvati’s voice gave away. She was all naked emotion. Joy but still fear of things changing. It wouldn’t be the first time things had changed at the last minute. But if everything was signed properly, the chances of that were now negligible.

“What she means is, we’re ready and the soonest time suits us,” she said carefully, her own voice wobbling.

Meryl smiled at them. “How does eight tomorrow morning sound? If the room is the same as I last saw it, I know you are ready tonight, but lets give you tonight to let it sink in, we wouldn’t want to overwhelm him too terribly on his first day with you.”

Parvati said something but it was incomprehensible through her sobbing. Pansy’s vision was getting rather blurry, but she managed to nod and agree without too much difficulty.

“Congratulations, dears,” Meryl said as she shouldered her satchel again. “I’m so happy for you, but I’ll leave you to celebrate. Do owl me if you have any questions, I’ll be on call for you all night if you need me, otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early.”

The next few moments were a blur. Pansy was sure she said more, but then Meryl was gone in another flare of green and Parvati’s arms were trying to choke the life out of her.

“We’re going to be mums!” Parvati wailed.

Pansy’s lip wobbled. Two failures, she hadn’t really expected this one to go through. She couldn’t break Parvati’s grip on her, so they both nearly fell off the couch when she leaned over to grab the folder.

It was hard with read with blurry eyes, and no amount of wiping at them made a difference, because sod it all, she couldn’t have stopped herself from crying right now if her life depended on it. Not with the way Parvati was, not while knowing how much it meant to her to finally succeed in adopting a child. Not with the feeling blossoming in her own chest after she’d fought so hard to not get too invested in the idea after two failures.

In the end, she’d thought she might hate this moment and change her mind about everything, but that couldn’t be more different than the feeling trying to burst out of her chest.

But still, flicking through the pages, all the signature lines bore ridiculous flourishes that she could see even through such blurry eyes. Any lingering doubts faded away. It was real. It was really happening.

The folder fell from her hands and she gave up on any lingering scraps of self control she had.

“We’re going to be mums!” she cried, turning properly in Parvati’s death grip until she could press her face to her hair and let it soak up her tears.

**Author's Note:**

> These one word prompts are so hard to write for!!


End file.
